Newsletter

Work begins on vacant downtown Savannah buildings

The new owner of the former Sorry Charlie's building expects to begin renovating the structure after closing on the property about two weeks ago. Eric Curl/Savannah Morning News

Ernest Wright is one of the workers who has been clearing the building at 12 West Oglethorpe. Eric Curl/Savannah Morning News

Workers recently began clearing and stabilizing the building at 12 West Oglethorpe, which has been vacant since burning up in a fire in 2009. Eric Curl/Savannah Morning News

Workers recently began clearing and stabilizing the building at 12 West Oglethorpe, which has been vacant since burning up in a fire in 2009. Eric Curl/Savannah Morning News

Workers recently began clearing and stabilizing the building at 12 West Oglethorpe, which has been vacant since burning up in a fire in 2009. Eric Curl/Savannah Morning News

Two vacant historic downtown buildings are getting some attention this month, after years of sitting unused.

Only one of the structures is expected to be occupied any time soon, however, while the other is to be stabilized for safety purposes.

At 12 West Oglethorpe, workers have begun clearing debris, including the rusted metal remnants of a collapsed roof, after a fire in 2009 caused extensive damage to the 114-year-old building’s rear annex, which was added in 1940. Temporary shoring also will be put in place to stabilize the walls.

The city has been trying to get the owners to address the condition of the building for a few years, with the matter tied up in Chatham County Recorder’s Court. The latest work is a result of those enforcement efforts, according to Susan Broker, director of Savannah’s Citizen Office.

The owner, Delaware-based SAV-REI LLC, is trying to sell the building and two potential buyers are currently interested in the property, said local attorney Harold Yellin, the corporation’s legal representative.

“We did have a buyer, but it fell through,” Yellin said.

Little has been done in the way of repairs since the current owners took possession about four months after the blaze five years ago.

Residents adjacent to the structure have been pressing the city for years to force the owners to make repairs, due to concerns about a collapsed roof over the former ballroom area and broken windows in the rear of the building, as well as the stability of the structure’s walls.

Preparations for the shoring work come about six months after a private firm’s structural assessment concluded the most significant concern was the collapsed roof creating a condition in which there was no lateral bracing at the top of the walls. However, the Sept. 13 report by Tharpe Structural Design Group concluded that if rehabilitation efforts proceeded within the next eight to 10 months, the likelihood of a structural failure of the walls was low.

Meanwhile, renovations of another vacated historic structure are expected to start this month.

A group of restaurant and bar owners represented by Bob Isaacson closed about two weeks ago on the purchase of the building at 116 W. Congress, which previously housed Sorry Charlie’s. The 161-year-old structure has sat vacant since the restaurant and bar closed in 2007 after city inspectors discovered the main floor was in danger of collapsing.

The building has remained relatively untouched, although scaffolding was put up around its walls after a chunk of brownstone fell about thirty feet onto the sidewalk in November.

Isaacson said he expects renovations to start this month and he hopes to open a new seafood restaurant there by October.

The group has not confirmed a name, but they have confirmed complete repair of the neon fish that used to hang over the Congress Street sidewalk, he said.